


Ghost

by orphan_account



Series: AUs Are Everything [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 13:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Victoria didn't sacrifice herself, but the spell wasn't fatal. This is what happens when Henry Mills goes looking for his drinking buddy.





	1. Lost

**Author's Note:**

> First official fic for Ao3, who's ready to mcfreaking lose it?!  
> *cough*  
> rip vine

There’s a part of her brain that’s still functioning.

That’s the part that’s noticing all the small details, like how the plants look so  _ weird _ when they’re tinted red, and how moving her feet is something she’s been taking for granted her entire life. 

How there’s a smile on Gothel’s face.

How her own mother just stands there, watching. 

This part of her brain is very, very small. 

And with a few more seconds, it disappears.

 

Everything is red. Everything is pain.

It feels like every atom in her body is being pulled apart.

She just wants it to stop, so badly she just wants it to stop, and now she feels something like a hole in her chest, can feel it growing and growing until she knows she’s going to fall, she’ll topple backwards and end everything, end the pain and the suffering and someone is screaming, she thinks it might be her but she’s too far gone to care. 

Her feet can move again but she can’t walk, all she can do is collapse. The cold cement floor should hurt, her reflex is to think that it hurts, but it doesn’t, not really. 

 

The pain stops. 

The screaming stops.

She’s not breathing.

The hole is still there. Lurking inside and whispering impossible promises about what could happen if she would

        only

                 let

            go.

A lot of time passes, she thinks. Her eyes are half closed and she can’t move. She’s dimly aware of the fact that she’s alone, but her awareness stretches only to what’s immediately around her.

More time.

 

She’s not bored.

She’s not much of anything. 

 

The pull of the hole grows stronger, but for some reason she doesn’t want to fall. She distracts herself by remarking on things.

 

Still not breathing. That’s odd.

Still can’t move. Ok. Whatever.

Still alone. What else is new. 

 

The world is a silent, lonely place. 

 

Darkness starts to creep in around the edges of her vision. She’s pretty sure her eyes are still open, though. 

The promises from the hole grow increasingly sweeter. 

Rest.

Freedom.

She should really just go down there immediately.

 

She tries her best to ignore the voices.

 

“Oh my god.”

A new voice. An outside voice. It sounds like it’s underwater, an echo-y, not-really-there, all-in-your-imagination voice. But then it comes again.

 

“Oh my  _ god. _ ”

 

and

 

_ “Ivy.” _

 

That’s her, she thinks. Ivy. It doesn’t sound quite right. 

 

Her view changes from blurry greenery to what looks like blurry ceiling. Someone’s moved her. She remarks on things again.

 

Still not breathing.

Still not moving.

No longer alone. 

 

“No. No. Nononono, Ivy!”

 

The voice clears up a little bit. It sounds frantic. She wishes she could tell it that she’s fine. The voice doesn't sound like it knows this.

 

“Henry…”

New person. Interesting.

“Henry. She’s…”

 

Henry? She knows that name. She knows that person. Why is Henry here? 

 

“I know.”

Knows what? It can’t be the obvious. It can’t be that she’s dead, because duh, she’s not. She’s still here. She’s aware. She has thoughts. She’s pretty sure a dead person doesn’t have those.

She tries to speak.

To breathe, to do anything. She can’t. 

 

A face enters her field of vision. 

Henry.

He looks sad, which oddly makes her feel better. 

At least someone cares.

Except she’s not actually dead, and she’d rather he just knew she was alive and not care, than think she’s gone and suddenly decide to be depressed. 

He brushes a hair that she can’t even feel off her forehead, but his hand lingers.

 

“Roni?”

 

Oh, yuck. He brought Regina. Wonderful.

 

“Yeah?”

So that’s the other person. 

“She’s...uh. She’s not... _ cold. _ ”

 

Obviously. Dead people are cold. Not ones who are  _ definitely still alive. _

 

“What? That’s impossible. She must have been here since Lucy woke up, and that was more than two days ago!” 

Hurried footsteps, and then Regina is over her as well. 

Arm reaching out, hand on face, none of it that she can feel. 

 

“What the hell?”

 

And then muttering. Funny, she didn’t peg Regina as a mutterer. Jumbled words about “failed spells” and “not completing the damn thing” and “that  _ bitch _ ” and her only comfort is that Henry looks as confused as she feels.

 

And then finally--

 

“Henry.”

Wow that’s a serious face there, Regina. 

“There’s a possibility…”

Yeah. A possibility that--

 

Regina takes a deep breath.

 

“Henry, I don’t think she’s actually dead.”

 

Well done. 

You finally got there.


	2. Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peers suspiciously at the wide line gaps in this story*

He kind of remembers what happened before this. 

 

There was Lucy, at the hospital. Just sitting up one night, like nothing had ever happened.

There was relief and happiness, for however long. It feels like one second. 

 

It feels like it didn’t even happen.

 

And then there was some chaos about a dead doctor, which was crazy.

 

And then Roni showed up. 

 

Roni showed up, acting strange. Telling him she’d just talked to Victoria Belfrey, apparently a very guilty Victoria Belfrey which was weird by itself, but then asking him if he’d talked to Ivy recently. He’d thought about it. 

 

He’d said no, not recently.

 

And then

 

Why?

 

And she’d looked at him, conflicted, like she wanted to tell him something, which was a look he’d seen more and more often from her. 

 

Then

“Henry, I think Ivy’s missing.”

 

And

“I think she’s been missing since Lucy woke up.”

And Henry’s mind short-circuits just the tiniest bit because that’s not possible, didn’t he just talk to her? Like,  _ just _ talk to her? Like…

 

More than two days ago.

Before Lucy woke up.

 

And so Henry panics a little. 

  
What? What can I do? We have to start looking! Who saw her last? When--

 

Henry, stop. Calm down. (That’s Roni)

We can find her. I actually know how to find her. I just need to talk to somebody. (Still Roni)

 

So Henry asks who.

 

And Roni says Victoria Belfrey. 

 

“But didn’t you just talk to her?” 

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why didn’t she just tell you then where Ivy is?”

 

Dot dot dot. An audible, in real life dot dot dot. Henry had never seen that happen before.

 

“Because I didn’t believe her when she said something had happened. And I may have kind of...dismissed her.” 

 

Henry’s kind of pissed at that, (and also kind of amused at the image) but ok. 

 

Roni disappears for a few hours. She comes back and tells him she knows where Ivy is.

Henry supposes she’s just been to talk to Victoria.

 

Roni says Ivy’s at the greenhouse, and Henry stands up and starts walking and Roni asks him why he’s going and Henry looks at her like it’s the most obvious thing in the world because uh yeah, it is. 

 

“She’s in trouble.”

And

“She’s my friend.”

 

And that’s that, so Henry walks right to his car and Roni gets in next to him and they drive to the greenhouse

 

(this is where Henry’s mind goes a little fuzzy)

 

He gets out of the car and there’s walking, a door, through the door, plants, woah that’s a lot of plants, walking, searching, Ivy? Ivy? Looking, Roni’s looking too, wow this is a big room, hey Roni are you sure we’re in the right place? Well ok then, more looking more plants searching and then

  
  


Oh

  
  


No

  
  


Everything is gone.

 

Nothing in the world is real except right here, right now, because she’s here, on the floor, he doesn’t have to even get close to see the 

 

stillness

 

The stillness of something that is not alive, could not possibly be alive, because life is movement, and laughter, and her smile when she thinks no one else is around, not 

 

this

 

Not her body, on the ground, in this circle like a part of some sick ritual.

 

Henry’s mind makes a smash cut.

 

He’s next to her, holding her, and he knows she’s gone, no one should be that still, he can feel her chill,

Except no.

 

She’s not cold.

 

She’s burning up. 

 

And Henry doesn’t know much, but he knows dead bodies aren’t supposed to do that.

 

Unless they’re, you know. Burning. 

 

But she isn’t, and so he doesn’t know what to think.

 

Only that she’s dead, very obviously un-alive, and yet. 

 

“Henry, I don’t think she’s actually dead.”

 

Boom. 

Smash cut. 

 

She’s in his arms, they’re in the car, Roni’s driving, Ivy’s head is in his lap in the backseat, wow. She looks pretty dead. But she’s not, she’s not she’s not she’s not.

 

Somehow. 

He doesn’t know how, and he doesn’t care. She’s just not.

Roni, where are we going?

 

No response.

He doesn’t care that much. 

 

She’s not dead. She looks dead. She’s not. 

 

Stop car, they’re at the bar. Weird. No one’s there. He carries her inside, holds her awkwardly as Roni _shhhhhsk_ s shut all the blinds. 

 

Ivy’s eyes stare at nothing. 

 

“Gina, what’re you…” a voice from the back trails off as Kelly comes into view. She takes in the whole scene with one look, then quickly switches her sentence. “Roni? What is this?” 

 

Henry’s too in shock to notice anything amiss.

 

Roni shakes her head and quickly, gently, pulls Henry’s sleeve and leads him to the back room. 

 

Henry’s lying Ivy on two tables pushed together.

 

Henry’s being pushed back.

 

He snaps out of it. 

 

“Hey! Wait, what?” 

 

Roni and Kelly stand at Ivy’s head and feet, and meet eyes. 

 

“Hey, hey! What are you doing?”

 

The sisters join hands. 

 

Roni shoots Henry an unreadable glance.

 

“Magic.” 


End file.
